Hermione said brewing Polyjuice Potion would take at least six to seven weeks, which was about what Harry had expected. By the time it was finished, it would be almost Christmas.
Although Harry and the others really wanted to help, their Potions skills were decidedly average.
Harry in particular was, after all, a student Snape had completely given up on. It was good enough that he could just about keep up with the lessons; brewing a potion this difficult was rather beyond his abilities.
So from that day on, besides studying, doing extra studying, and helping Harry, Ron, and Neville study, Hermione took on another job: researching Polyjuice Potion.
It was just as well it was Hermione. Anyone else probably would have been unable to sustain such an intense workload of work and study.
Nothing happened over the next week, yet beneath Hogwarts' unremarkable surface, undercurrents were most certainly stirring.
No one knew when it had started or who had started it, but the hottest topic at Hogwarts now was who Slytherin's heir was-or, to put it another way, who had opened the Chamber of Secrets.
The topic became so heated that some people with too much time on their hands even drew up a ranking.
Harry strongly suspected that the people secretly behind this ranking were the Weasley family's Twins and their troublemaking friend, Lee Jordan.
Those three troublemakers loved doing this sort of flashy nonsense.
For now, the main candidates were all current students. After all, attacking other students was one thing, but when it came to attacking a cat, a current student was still the likeliest culprit.
Students from every House had suffered at Mrs. Norris's paws, giving them ample motive.
People's attention focused mainly on five people.
What Harry had never expected was that he himself